


A Siren's Call

by quietpastelcolours



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Altered canon, F/M, Incomplete, Wind Waker AU, and also a mermaid instead of a pirate, but she's an adult in this, but with mermaid!tetra not pirate!tetra, so basically its the plot of wind waker, when I say Zelda I mean she's calling herself tetra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-17
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-24 13:09:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7509622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quietpastelcolours/pseuds/quietpastelcolours
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ganondorf sits in his tower plotting and planning, awaiting the moment he uncovers Princess Zelda's location so his plans can come to fruition. He expects that she will be found, but he doesn't expect to find a mermaid lurking in the waters around the Forsaken Fortress.</p><p>Though she has pointed ears and blonde hair, she has a tail, so she can't be who he's looking for. Can she?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Glimpse

The waves crashed against the stone at the base of the fortress, creating a background noise that to anybody else might be described as soothing. To Ganondorf, however, the continuous, repetitive sound only gave voice to the fact that, while free, he was imprisoned. This ocean, this sea, it taunted him with its sound, never letting him escape the knowledge that it was there, covering what he most wanted, even for a moment.

Sometimes, he debated the wisdom that came with having a fortress in the middle of what he despised most.

Taking another sip of his tea, Ganondorf set the cup back down in his saucer, and then picked up the papers he’d been pouring over. His plans were perfect… nothing would stop him now – especially not that interfering little brat who had the temerity to dress himself like the hero of old. Ganondorf scoffed at the thought, but then pleasure curled through him – the boy wouldn’t interfere any longer, since the Helmaroc King had thrown him to his death.

He studied the written words carefully – his plans were laid and he was confident that he would succeed. All he needed now was to track down Zelda and take her piece of the Triforce, and then he could continue on with stage two of his plans.

At that moment, there came a knock on the door. Ganondorf looked up, irritated at the interruption.

“Enter.”

“Master!” The bokoblin who’d just entered bowed. “The boy! The boy! He swims closer!”

“From which direction?” Ganondorf growled – why was the brat coming back? He thought he’d have been killed. Apparently, he needed to inform the Helmaroc King to double check his kills.

The bokoblin pointed out the west window, and Ganondorf rose slowly, his robes sweeping the floor as he crossed the room to look; sure enough, there was a blond head bobbing in the waves.

“Take care of it.” He said darkly. “No mistakes this time.”

The bokoblin was gone by the time he turned his head, and then Ganondorf decided to remain at the window to watch the boy’s demise. It would be an amusing diversion.

Unfortunately, he forgot to take into account the general idiocy of some of his minions. The blond head stayed where it was, floating gently up and down in the water while the bokoblins and moblins danced crazily up and down, shouting taunts and trying to lure the boy closer. Why, he could see a few of them setting up an elaborate contraption made from a fishing net and several lengths of rope, to try and drag the annoying child closer.

After half an hour, they were no closer to trapping the boy, and Ganondorf sighed in disgust. Hopeless. Absolutely hopeless.

His minions could hold their own in a fight, but this? They couldn’t get to the boy in order to fight him. Turning, he decided to go down there himself. It would be much easier if he dealt with the boy rather than waste so much time and get his minions so worked up over very little. His plans could wait a mere half hour.

Ganondorf descended the stairs from the top of the tower slowly, his mind on the search for the princess… the Helmaroc King had bought him yet another child the other day who, like the others, had long pointed ears but was in no way the princess. It was irritating him immensely – his plotting wasn’t going to go anywhere if he couldn’t find the girl.

He reached the base of the tower, and one of the bokoblins on duty pulled open the door, and Ganondorf stepped out onto the island the tower stood upon. Frowning slightly at the water all around him, he made his way around to the western side of the island, the sea breeze tugging at the hem of his robes.

“What’s taking you so long?” He said curtly, making several of his minions look up in fright. “Are you all that incompetent that you can’t take care of one annoying little brat?”

“He’s too far out, Master!” One bokoblin quavered. “We can’t reach! We’d squish him if he came close!”

There was loud agreement to this, and Ganondorf breathed heavily in disgust, before lifting his gaze to the boy. Now he was closer, however, he thought there was something vaguely odd about the child – his head looked… differently shaped then he remembered. He put it down to the boy being too far out to see properly.

“Go inside.” He said quietly. “I’ll handle the boy.”

His minions immediately took themselves inside, and he spent a moment, contemplating the child as he floated there in the waves.

“You’ll have to come out sooner or later, boy.” Ganondorf called, raising his voice. “There is no life in that sea, and it’ll take yours soon enough.”

The boy did nothing, merely floated and watched. Ganondorf began to wonder if the boy had died, and his corpse was stuck on something.

“You seemed awfully confident before.” He called coolly. “Why not come back for another taste?”

He grinned slowly in cruel satisfaction as the blond head began to move closer at last, and then his mouth dropped open in shock and surprise as he realised it wasn’t the boy… it was a woman.

She was very Hylian in appearance, with pale skin and long blonde hair that flowed gently in the water. She was close enough that he could see her eyes were blue… and her ears… her ears were _pointed_. His interest in the woman shot up by a few degrees, and he was just opening his mouth to speak when she dipped back underneath the water. Ganondorf waited for her to reappear, but she didn’t.

After close to ten minutes scanning the ocean to find her and coming up with nothing, Ganondorf sighed in irritable confusion and went back inside. His minions skittered out of the way as he swept towards the stairs, but he paid them no heed, mind full of the young Hylian woman in the ocean. She'd obviously drowned... how could it be otherwise? She hadn't resurfaced at all, and no one could breathe underwater. But how had she gotten there? His fortress was in the middle of the Great Sea, and she was swimming. There wasn't any sign of boats or raft... the conundrum puzzled him exceedingly, but as she was in all probability dead now, he supposed it didn't matter, and went on with his plans.


	2. Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The strange ocean girl returns.

She kept appearing, and it was strange. Ganondorf didn’t know what to make of it. He’d assumed she’d drowned that first day, but later when he’d been meditating and began to reflect on it, he noted how peculiar it was that a Hylian woman had swum all the way out to his fortress. Had she known where it was? Was it her design to reach this place? Had her strength tragically failed just before she reached shore? Those mysteries had been flung out the window to plummet to the watery depths below when the next day a bokoblin had excitedly informed him that the boy had returned.

Ganondorf had had to remind himself that his minions didn’t know the boy had turned out to be a girl, but hadn’t informed the bokoblin anyway, preferring to go down and see for himself. He’d stood on the shore, trying to think of things that would make the girl come closer, and sometimes she did, but she always disappeared beneath the water and vanished.

Therefore, he had no choice but to assume she had someway of surviving underneath the water; could she breathe? Was she some strange sea creature appearing at last that could somehow mimic the appearance of humans? Was it magic? He wasn’t sure, and wouldn’t be sure until he could get a hold of her. But how? She wouldn’t come to the shore; she floated too far out to be reached.

She’d been appearing for over a week now, and while his plans still occupied a large chunk of his thoughts (including the capture of a new long eared girl who’d turned out to be another dead end), Ganondorf found her face swimming to the forefront of his mind more and more. She made him a little uneasy, he found. Not uneasy that she was going to cause him any harm; she was practically made of porcelain, but no. Unease that there was a young woman watching him, and he had no idea why. He didn’t know what she wanted or what she was doing, and for a man who ruthlessly controlled every aspect of his life, it bothered him.

There came a knock at the door.

“Enter.” He called, already knowing what this was going to be about.

“Master! The girl! She’s back!”

He knew it.

Ganondorf turned back to his papers. “Ignore her.”

He could practically feel the bokoblin’s confusion. “Master?”

“Ignore her.” He repeated. “She doesn’t do anything; we can’t reach her and she won’t come closer, so forget about her.”

“As you wish, Master.” The bokoblin still sounded confused as he shut the door and left, but Ganondorf was perfectly content in this course of action; they’d been in some sort of bizarre stalemate for the past week, and he was determined to erase the narrative and bring things back to his own terms.

Despite ignoring her as per his orders, his minions still reported her presence each day, and it was starting to seriously annoy him. What was she doing? Nevertheless, Ganondorf continued to ignore the girl, and she continued to float off shore for an hour or two each day, and then disappear until she came back the next day.

Two weeks passed since he’d started ignoring her, and she showed up less and less, and then finally, she appeared when she’d been gone for days, sending his minions into a frenzy. Coincidentally, Ganondorf was on the shore at the time, directing a new project, and he eyed the girl as she floated quietly. Perhaps it was worth trying to say something to her again.

Ganondorf sent his minions inside and approached the shore, stopping just shy of the water lapping at the sand. He didn’t want seawater staining the hem of his robes. He was standing by an outcropping of rock that formed a sort of natural dock, and to his surprise, the blonde girl swam a little closer.

Tetra eyed the man curiously. He’d stopped showing up, and though she’d returned out of pure curiosity, his funny hopping creatures had lost their novelty over time. She wasn’t even sure why she returned; something about the tall man seemed vaguely familiar in a way that she didn’t understand, but that was about it.

She swam very cautiously closer, eying him curiously and taking in more of his appearance. He seemed to be a very large, dark skinned man swathed some sort of black… thing. She’d noticed during her observations that many of the land people wore… _things_ , loose, flappy things, over their bodies, though she wasn’t yet sure why they did so.

The man was very big, she noticed. Much taller than the other people she liked to watch. Nerves churned in her belly – she hadn’t thought she’d be spotted this time, but those funny looking creatures had started shouting and pointing at her, jumping up and down and trying to call her closer. The sight had amused her, so she’d stayed there watching, but then the big man had appeared and they’d all gone back inside the building. Again. This had happened quite a few times and then stopped, and she wondered what exactly was this man’s draw. Why was he so interesting? Was it perhaps that he looked so different to the other land dwellers she’d seen?

She could see the wind ruffling the man’s vivid red hair – the colour reminded her of the sands in one part of the ocean, far away to the west. Tetra swam closer and closer, and then all of a sudden she saw the scowl on his face change to something like confusion. She was much closer than she’d ever been before now, bobbing gently in the waves. Her long hair floated over her shoulder, and she shoved it back again, drawing his gaze, and then… if she didn’t know better, she’d have said he was looking at her ears.

“Who are you?” He asked darkly, disregarding her question.

“My name is Tetra.” She replied. “Who are you?”

Again, that deep furrow appeared between his brows. “I am Ganondorf.” He said finally. “What are you doing out here?”

She shrugged, water slipping over her shoulders as she did so. “I’ve never been this far away from home before. I’m exploring.”

“Won’t you come in?” He said, voice silky smooth. “You can dry off. You’ll be my guest for the evening.”

There was something funny about the way he said the words ‘my guest’, but that wasn’t the reason Tetra shook her head.

“I cannot leave the water.” She said softly.

Confusion crossed over Ganondorf’s features. “Why not?” He asked, the tone of his voice fairly suspicious.

Tetra took a deep breath and swam towards the nearest edge of the island, gripping the rocks with her hands and pulling herself up, twisting around so she was sitting on the edge of the rock. She couldn’t help a slight grin at the blank look of shock on the man’s face, and looked in the direction that he was staring in – at her tail.

“I think you see now.” She said with a small smile up at him. “I’ve never left the water, and I never will.” Tetra sighed rather enviously as she gazed at the island, at the man standing there. She would never stand on anything. “I wish that I could, however.”

There was a curious expression on his face as he advanced a few steps. “I have never seen a woman with the tail of a fish.” He said finally. “How has this happened?”

Tetra frowned. “What’s a fish?” She asked, confused. She knew there were lots of words the land people used, and she often didn’t know what they meant, for they had no relevance to her watery life.

Ganondorf said nothing as he raised a fiery brow. “A fish. A small animal that lives in the ocean. Or used to, anyway. Fishes have scales and a tail like yours.”

Tetra looked down at her tail and stroked a hand over the silvery scales as they caught the sun. “Really?”

“Really.” Ganondorf came a little closer then. “Where are the rest of your people? You must live very far out.”

Tetra looked down, pulling her wet hair over her shoulder to fiddle with it. “I have no people.” She said quietly. “I have never seen another like me.”

Ganondorf looked sceptical as the sea breeze played with his robes. “Never? What of when you were a child?”

Tetra was feeling very uncomfortable now. He was looking at her so intently, and she wasn’t used to such scrutiny; she pushed off the rock and back down into the safety of the water, her tail beating powerfully beneath the waves as she held herself in place.

Ganondorf contemplated this new thing before him with a fair amount of interest. She had a tail. Normal human women didn’t have tails, which implied that she wasn’t human. He vaguely recalled an old Hylian legend that spoke of _mer-maids_ , of sea maidens with fish tails who’s song lured sailors to their deaths in the rocks. He eyed the girl – Tetra – and noted the worry on her face as she watched him. She was uncomfortable being here then – so why did she keep returning?

“What-” He began. Taking a step forwards, but her eyes widened and she dipped back beneath the water and resurfaced some distance away.

“If you will return.” He said softly. “I wish to speak further with you.”

Tetra made no reply; she slipped beneath the water and didn’t come back again. Ganondorf took a long moment to breathe and control the irritation brewing under his skin; when he was calm again he turned and went back inside.

“Listen up.” He barked, and all the various minions in the first floor of the tower instantly dropped what they were doing and turned to face him.

“The girl may or may not return again, but if she does, you will all put all your efforts into capturing her. I don’t care what it takes, just do it.”

There was a chorus of “Yes Master!” And then Ganondorf swept back up the stairs to ponder. Sitting down at his desk, he spent some time pouring the perfect cup of tea, and while the leaves steeped, he considered things. Tetra was a mermaid. That, he was now certain of, which explained the mysteries of how she survived in the sea. But how? The Great Sea was, to all accounts, dead. Nothing lived in it at all, not even fish, so how was there an actual mermaid living there? And what had she meant that she was the only one? She couldn’t be, could she? She’d have been born and raised by her parents, like any other living creature. And why did she keep coming to stare at the fortress for a while and then leave again? Why had she finally approached him today? Why had the revelation of some of these confusing mysteries only led to the creation of more? Ganondorf carefully poured some tea into his cup and sipped at the hot liquid thoughtfully. If she returned tomorrow… hopefully he could uncover something more about her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, I know I always said I'd come back to this fic (and a few others) but its been over a year since I updated and my drive to complete this fic is just gone. I no longer like the plot and I can't see anyway of changing the plot while still keeping the chapters that have already been posted, and I can't force myself to write something I don't enjoy. I'm sorry if you wanted to see this fic finished (and I do too, to be honest) but it just isn't going to work out. I'm sorry :(


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